Caleb Love scores 23 as No. 10 Arizona pulls away to beat Utah 92-73


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TUCSON, Ariz. — Utah men's basketball wasn't feeling the love — or at least, they couldn't stop him.

After a lackluster showing on offense in a loss Thursday, Utah found a bit more Saturday night against 10th-ranked Arizona. But Arizona's Caleb Love was even better on a night where he finished with a game-high 23 points, six rebounds and six assists to lead the Wildcats.

"There's not much he can't do on the basketball floor," Utah head coach Craig Smith said about Love. "Championship pedigree, was a part of a national championship team at North Carolina, obviously a huge part of that team. I mean, that dude is a playmaking guard at a high level."

Despite the improved effort, Utah's trip to Tucson ended the same way it always does.

Arizona used a 14-3 run over a four-minute period midway through the second half to put distance on Utah in what was a mostly back-and-forth affair before the run, and then held serve for a 92-73 win.

Utah (11-4, 2-2 Pac-12) will have to wait another year until it can potentially break a nearly 40-year drought in Tucson.

Over Arizona's second-half run, Utah managed to make only one field goal in nine attempts in another scoring drought for a team that couldn't piece together a consistent scoring effort throughout the night. Utah had stretches of success, but nothing Arizona (12-3, 3-1 Pac-12) couldn't match.

The Wildcats shot 60% from the field and 56% from 3-point range, making 10 triples, in an impressive scoring effort that featured all five starting players finishing in double digits.

Keshad Johnson finished with 20 points and five rebounds, Oumar Ballo had 17 points and nine rebounds, former Ute Pelle Larsson had 13 points, and Kylan Boswell added 11 points in the win.

Utah matched much of Arizona's effort in the first half, keeping the game close, but Lawson Lovering picked up two quick fouls and Keba Keita suffered an injury early that limited what Utah could do to stop Arizona's attack, particularly in the post.

"Ballo just really, really hurt us down there," Smith said. "He's a big, physical, rugged dude. Early in the game, Lovering getting those two quick fouls, I thought, really hurt us."

Keita never returned to action Saturday, and Smith said "we'll see" on the extent of his injury.

"I don't know," Smith said. "We'll see how it goes. He'll have a couple of days to kind of do what he needs to do. Obviously, Keba is a big part of what we do. We missed him, certainly, at times, just the way we had to do it, but that's sports."

Outside of Gabe Madsen's four 3-pointers and a team-high 18 points, Utah couldn't match Arizona's dominant offensive performance in the post in the first half (and, really, the whole game), where the team scored 20 points in the first half and finished with 50, and the Wildcats' hot shooting from 3-point range in the second half.

Cole Bajema added 11 points, and Ben Carlson finished with 10 points as the only other Utah players in double digits. Branden Carlson, the team's leading scorer for the season, was held to just 7 points on 3-of-10 shooting in a down night for the veteran center.

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Josh is the sports director at KSL.com and beat writer covering University of Utah athletics — primarily football, men’s and women's basketball and gymnastics. He is also an Associated Press Top 25 voter for college football.

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